Health Care Access and Utilization among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Persons in the United States, 2014

Questions for Carla Zelaya, Survey Statistician and Lead Author on “Health Care Access and Utilization among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Persons in the United States, 2014”

Q: What did your report find on health care access for the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) population?

CZ: Some of the main highlights of the report were NHPI adults were more likely to be insured, have public health coverage, have a usual place of care and a flu vaccination in the past 12 months compared with all U.S. adults. However, NHPI adults were also less likely to have private insurance, and those aged 65 and over were less likely to have ever received a pneumococcal vaccination compared with all U.S. adults.

Q: Is this the first published health data on NHPI population?

CZ: The Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey (NHPI NHIS), is the first federal survey designed exclusively to measure the health of the civilian non-institutionalized NHPI population of the United States. It was conducted by NCHS, and this is the third report published from the survey.

The first two reports are:

Citation #1: Galinsky AM, Zelaya CE, Simile C, Barnes PM. Health conditions and behaviors of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander persons in the United States, 2014. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 3(40). 2017.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_03/sr03_040.pdf

Citation #2: Galinsky AM, Zelaya CE, Barnes PM, Simile C. Selected health conditions among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults: United States, 2014. NCHS data brief, no 277. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db277.htm

Q: How do you collect data on the NHPI population?

CZ: To conduct the 2014 NHPI NHIS, NHIS field interviewers visited houses previously identified in the American Community Survey (ACS) to have at least one resident of any age with an NHPI racial identity (either alone or in combination with one or more other racial identities).

Q: Is there anything in the data that surprised you?

CZ: Within the NHPI population it was especially interesting that Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders adults differed in prevalence of uninsurance and private coverage (but not public coverage).

Q: What is the take home message from this report?

CZ: The prevalence of many indicators of access and utilization of health care among NHPI people differ from the total U.S. population and more specifically from Asians in the U.S. There was also diversity in access and utilization of health care within the NHPI population.